COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL: Win over SIUE ‘a big, big deal’ to Salukis

Louie Korac, For The Telegraph

Published
10:21 am CST, Saturday, November 19, 2016

SIUE’s Tre Harris (right) launches a 3-pointer over a SIUC defender during Friday night’s men’s college basketball game at Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville. Harris scored 24 points in the Cougars’ defeat. less

SIUE’s Tre Harris (right) launches a 3-pointer over a SIUC defender during Friday night’s men’s college basketball game at Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville. Harris scored 24 points in the Cougars’ ... more

Photo: SIUE Athletics

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SIUE’s Tre Harris (right) launches a 3-pointer over a SIUC defender during Friday night’s men’s college basketball game at Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville. Harris scored 24 points in the Cougars’ defeat. less

SIUE’s Tre Harris (right) launches a 3-pointer over a SIUC defender during Friday night’s men’s college basketball game at Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville. Harris scored 24 points in the Cougars’ ... more

Photo: SIUE Athletics

COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL: Win over SIUE ‘a big, big deal’ to Salukis

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EDWARDSVILLE — The wait for redemption lasted one year for the SIUC Salukis men’s basketball team.

Red-hot shooting in the first half set the tone in a 101-83 victory against the SIUE Cougars on Friday night before a crowd of 3,017 at Vadalabene Center.

The Cougars (2-2) went into Carbondale and shocked the Salukis (2-2) last season 76-74, winning for the first time in eight meetings. SIUE could not pull off the feat against its sister school Friday.

The Salukis, who were led by Sean O’Brien with 22 points and Leo Vincent and Mike Rodriguez with 20 points each, shot a sizzling 73 percent (22 of 30) from the floor in the first half and raced out to a 54-33 advantage.

Austin Weiher’s 3-point basket with five seconds left opened up the biggest lead of the half for the Salukis and capped off a near-perfect half that included a 16-2 run to open a 21-20 lead into 37-22.

“This was a big deal to us. A big, big deal to us,” Salukis coach Barry Hinson said. “That hurt us last year. That was a big deal to us and also the way we played at Arkansas the first half. It was really disappointing, so we really challenged our guys and we really challenged them over these last 48 hours, and I thought our guys responded.”

SIUC didn’t stop there, starting the second half with a 11-2 opening run to lead 65-35. The Salukis led by as many as 31 (70-39).

“I thought the most impressive thing we did tonight was the way we came out and started the second half. I thought that was a big deal. I subbed everybody there at the end or we would have set ever school record offensively tonight, but we had to get those kids that don’t get to play a chance to play some.”

When asked if they can play any better, Hinson said, “We can defensively, but not offensively. That’s probably the second-best performance I’ve had in 36 years.”

Edwardsville High grad Armon Fletcher sat out all but the first 3 minutes, 15 seconds of the first half for the Salukis after picking up two quick fouls. Fletcher scored his first points on a three-point play with 18:44 remaining in the game and finished with 11 points.

“It feels great, especially coming back to my hometown,” said Fletcher, who graduated from Edwardsville in 2014 and is a redshirt sophomore in the Salukis program. “My birthday’s (Saturday) and it’s kind of an early birthday present. It’s a great feeling.

“I had a lot of family and friends here. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

For the Cougars, Edwardsville High grad Tre Harris led them in scoring with 24 points. But after a hot start shooting the basketball, including Jalen Henry scoring eight of the first 12 points, SIUE finished 11 of 27 (41 percent) for the first half.

Jalen Henry had 17 for the Cougars and and Christian Ellis chipped in with 16.

But on Friday, this was all about the Cougars’ defense, or lack thereof.

“You can’t win ballgames allowing opponents to shoot it that clear,” Cougars coach Jon Harris said. “That’s something that we’ve talked a lot about. Honestly, we struggled with that against Texas State as well. It wasn’t really jump shots. … We’re allowing teams to get to the rim, right to the heart of our defense and that’s something we obviously have to get corrected very soon.”

Tre Harris came in as the Cougars’ leading scorer at 14 points per game, had 11 first-half points in his first home game since high school.

“My teammates just found me,” said Tre Harris, who was 7-for-13 from the floor, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. “I just took the opportunities that they gave me. I just shot the ball and I feel I was open. Lucky it just went down today, but we just have to step up on the defensive end as a team. We definitely need that and rebounding. … We just have to get back to the drawing board and we’ll be good.”

SIUE, which was outscored 54-38 in the paint, simply couldn’t handle SIUC’s inside game or Vincent with his dribble penetration.

O’Brien and Vincent combined to make 17 of 24 field goals.

“I think starting the game out, their big guys really established a presence in the paint,” coach Harris said. “Jalen and (Keenan Simmons), I don’t want to call them undersized, but they’ve got to find a way to be more physical and compete a little bit harder to start the game out. I thought they established their dominance early, and then we started collapsing and that opened up the lanes for their guards. I think that was the difference in the ballgame.”

Alton High’s Carlos Anderson, who came in as SIUE’s second-leading scorer at 10.7 points per game, was blanked in the first half on 0 of 2 shooting. Anderson didn’t score until the 16:03 mark of the second half with a pair of free throws and finished with four points after fouling out with 2:14 remaining.